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The 
Discomfort Box 


By 
KATHERINE JHAXTER 


THE WoOMAN’S BoarD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS OF THE 
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE U. S. A. 


156 Fifth Avenue, New York 


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Discomfort Box 
Bye 
KATHERINE THAXTER _ 


DELAIDE laid a curiously carved, brown wooden 
. box on the table. The group of girls in her room 
gazed at it. | 
«What. ispat 22 they cried. ‘‘Where did you get it? 
How odd!” ; 
Doris Keene took it up in her hands and sniffed— 
‘*Q-o-oh, it has a funny smell.”’ 
“Tell us about it, Adelaide,’’ cried Janet. ‘Yes, 
do,’’ said the others in unison. Pauline, Barbara and 
Louise were curled up in the sunny window-seat, arms 
entwined. Doris and Janet hung over the table exam- 
ining the carving of the box. 

— “What i is see echoed Adelaide. ‘‘Why, it’s ae: dis?* 
comfort box.’ 

The group on the candies seat giggled. They always 
did, at everything. 

“Well, ’? said Adelaide. ‘‘ You know I had a birthday — 
when ie was at Aunt Marie’s—you all remembered it 
and sent me such dueky things. Aunt Marie gave me a 

party and I had a beautiful time. Just next door to 


. 3 


auntie’s house there was a lady missionary staying. 
She had been a doctor over in a hospital in India for 


years and years, her name was Dr. Drew. She was 


home on a holiday visiting Mrs. Arms who had been a 
school friends of hers long ago, just like all of us. 

‘“‘Oh, she was the best fun. I just loved to hear her 
tell stories about India and the strange things the 
people there did and about the patients that. came to 

the hospital. I don’t know how many little orphan 
girls she had taken in—little girls that came to her 
starved, and beaten, and terribly sick sometimes. 

‘“She had pictures of some of them and they were real 
~ eute looking, with dark faces, and wearing funny little 
drapes for dresses. I just wished sometimes that I could 
really see them when she told me some of the things 
that happened to them. 


‘‘Girls, I tell you, you wouldn’t want to be a little — 
girl in India,’”’ she said impressively. The girls were | 


gazing wide-eyed at her—‘‘and have to be married 
before you got a chance to go to school, and have ~ 
‘to go to live with your husband’s family and have — 
to do a lot of hard work and be shut up and never get — 
out to play and have your mother-in-law mean to you, er 
she paused for breath. ‘‘And Dr. Drew said that if _ 
your husband should die they would blame it on you or 
and you would be starved and beaten and have no pretty — 
clothes to wear and perhaps have to sleep in an outside : 


shed, while everybody thought they had a right to abuse 
a ; 


ea “s a : | 
praise Oh, she told me about some of those girls, just no 
older than we are, and they. had never had a bit of fun 


2 eineall their lives. 


~ “Sometimes she would tell us about funny aes that 
happened there, too, and she would sit cross-legged on 
_ the porch and play the queerest tunes on an old tin can 
and sing some of their songs. Oh, girls, I was thrilled 
and I got to know a lot about what missionaries do for 
the neulk of those lands and I’m interested in them 
IL OA ae lees 

. “But the box, Adelaide, did Dr. Drew give it to you?”’ 
aes impatient Janet. ° 
a “Yes, on my birthday she came over and saw Pal my 
presents and was at my party. She brought me this 
box and said I could keep the pretty handkerchiefs you 
- girls sent me in it, and then,’’ Adelaide’s voice dropped. 
Vot know, girls, she made me cry. She pee her hands 
on my shoulder and said: 2 

‘““T want you to have this box, Adelaide, so that in 
your happy life here, you may often think of the poor, 
sad little girls in India, many of whom never know what 
it is to be happy and gay and beloved as you are.’’”’ It 
was very still in the room, even the group on the window- 
seat had grave faces. 

“This box was given to the doctor by a poor little 
mother who brought a very sick baby to Dr. Drew and 
5S. she made him well. The mother came back all smiles 
some time after with this box. The doctor says they like 


~ 
re) 


to give presents and this mother was so grateful to the 


missionary doctor. So Dr. Drew said she had the box ~~ 


in her room and she got into the habit of putting things . 


in it that specially pleased her. Perhaps a nice letter 


from a friend at home, and sometimes she put money — 


in it that had been sent her for presents and she would 


use it for her patients. So she called it her comfort 


box. I thought it was dear of her to give it to me and © 


I loved her so, I just hugged her and said: 


‘Tear Dr. Drew, I’m so glad you gave me this box — | 
so that I’ll never forget you and your little girl friends | 


in India whom you love and I’m going to try to get all 


the girls I know fo love those people, too.’ And she 


laughed and hugged me and said, ‘Dear old comfort 
» box, you’re at your old tricks. I’ve opened you again 
and put another comfort in,’ and she meant me, girls.’’ 
Adelaide finished solemnly, looking round at her friends. 


‘‘But Dr. Drew has gone back to India and here is 


the box. It’s a terrible responsibility and I call it now 
my discomfort box. It worries me so. I think it ought — 
to have things put in it to help those little girls in India. | 


I just thought I’d put it up to you girls to see a we 


can help Dr. Drew and her little girls in India.’ 


‘“‘But that is what the missionary society neo said. 
Doris, who was the minister’s daughter. “They hold 


meetings and pray and give money for the people in 


China and Africa and all those places. You don’t mean aes 


that, do you?”’ 


“Do you mean us to fill the box with money to send — 


= to India?’’ asked practical Janet. The three in the win- 
dow-seat sigeled as usual. Then Doris shook the box. 
“Why, there’s something in it, 


oi) 


she said, in surprise. 
She tried to open it. . 
“‘Tt’s loecked,’’ said Adelaide, and dangled a bit of 


blue ribbon with the key at the end of it. ‘‘No wait,’ 
as Janet reached for it. ‘‘I told you I called it my dis- 


comfort box. Well, I lived with it till it made me give 


up something I wanted very much.’’ She unlocked the 
box solemnly and all the girls ‘erowded round to see as 
shes drew out a small envelope and unwrapped a five- 
dollar Dill. She held it up dramatically. | 


“My new tennis racquet, oirls ; it’ S going to send some 


| comfort to India.’ 


eel, Adelaide, ”” eried Teac ‘*You’ve been NS 


- for it such a long time and your old one is broken.’ 


3 “‘Father mended it and I can use it, um was Adelaide’s 


brisk reply. ““Now, AEE won’t one of you take the box 
for awhile ?’’ 


_ Nobody spoke but the sroup on the ie seat for- 


a got to giggle. They looked scared. 


“T have it, girls,’’ Janet cried. ‘‘Leét’s form a club— 


the Box -Club—and have meetings at each other’s homes 
and a ceremony over the opening of the box. To be a 


member you have to. pledge yourself to be guardian of 


the box for a month or until you’ve really suffered in 
order to put something in it. 


fi 


‘“Adelaide’s president, because she owns the box, and 
Doris can be treasurer ’cause she’s the only one who - 
can keep accounts straight.’’ Janet’s enthusiasm was 
catching and even quiet Barbara found herself a mem- 
ber of the newly made club, largely because she didn’t 
want to be left out of anything the girls were ‘‘in.’’ 
Janet became the proud possessor of the key on the 
blue ribbon and tucked the brown box lovingly under 
her arm. : 
~ “Come home with Janet, little box from india. If 
Adelaide, who loves to play tennis better than anything 
else in the world and who just hates to play with her old 
mended raequet can do that for you surely Janet can 
stop being a greedy pig long enough to put somevane 
in your little insides.’ 

Janet was not one who let erass STOW under He feet, ; 


so the members of the newly organized Box Club were ~ 


not surprised to be summoned to her home before a week | 
had passed. The box occupied a prominent position in the 
middle of the library table and Janet, whose red cheeks 
showed her excitement, unlocked it with a flourish, = 

‘‘It just happened yesterday and I know if I kept ‘ 
the box a year I’d never have to give up anything that 


would hurt me more. Uncle J ack has to make a business - | 


trip to the city this week-end and he offered to take Celia 

and me along. He said he would take us to the Sym- 

phony Concert in the Auditorium because you know, — 

Celia is crazy for music. I didn’t care so much for the © 
8 me 


a 


+ 


concert but I was wild to go because Uncle Jack is such 
good fun and we were going to a hotel and all that. 

“T asked mother how much money Uncle would be 
likely to spend on me and she said several dollars, she 
SS So I just asked Uncle Jack quick for fear I’d 
enever- have the courage if I stopped to think, if he’d 
just as soon give me the money and let me stay at home. 

‘Mother was shocked, she thought I was so rude and 

so I had to tell Uncle Jack all about the discomfort box. 

Of course he offered to give me some money for the 
- box and take me on the trip too, but I explained to 

him that that wouldn’t be playing the game for the 

box was really and truly a ‘discomfort’ box. He 
laughed his Die laugh and called me a queer kid—and 
- gave me this.’? She drew out a crisp ten-dollar Dill. 
“He said he expected to buy me lots of sundaes and take 

-me riding in a taxicab as well as to the concert and 
besides he’d like to putin a dollar or two for the little 
oirls in India, himself—and so somebody take the pes 
quick because I’ve given up all I can stand just now.’ 
“We'll have to ‘eenie-meenie’ for it,’’ declared 

: Adelaide and the lot fell to Barbara. She really looked 
anything but thrilled when Janet tossed the blue ribbon 
round her neck and said to her: 
sees shelvear up, Babs, it Al op easy for you. So many nice 

es come your way.’ 
But the girls didn’t. really know, thouslit Barbara as 
sg she went home with the box. They thought that because 
9 


she lived in this big house out on the avenue with her 
erandmother and three aunts that she had a lovely time. 
True, the grandmother and the aunts were lovely to her 
but they were so occupied all the time that the Te 
timid girl was often very lonely. 
Her mother had died when she was born but for a> 


long time she had lived alone with her father. Then | - 


his business took him away so much that he had brought — 
her home to his mother and sisters. But only Barbara 
knew how passionately she longed to be one of a big 
family of girls and boys. She pushed the box back in a 
drawer and tried to forget it but every time she saw 
one of the girls she thought of it with a guilty feeling. 
Once she thought of asking her grandmother for some 
money, which she would be sure to get, for grand- 
mother denied her nothing but then she knew she 
would have to forfeit her membership in the Box Club 
and she just couldn’t give up her ees with the 
girls. 

She worried and worried over it and sometimes she 
would take out the box and gaze mournfully at it. It- 
seemed to her at these times that the carving on the 
box made itself into strange faces of sad little girls 
from India that she was unable to help. How long 
would she have to keep this dreadful boxe l¢ certainly 
merited its name of ‘‘discomfort.’’ 

“The child looks pale,’’? Aunt Charlotte said one ey | 
“And she doesn’t eat anything.’’ | 


10 


? 


“She neds a tonic,’ ’ said Aunt Julia. ‘‘She’s grow- 
ing too fast.’” . 
“TT think she tie some fore said Aunt Minnie. 
‘“Suppose we let her have a party for her little friends. 
She has a birthday next week.’’ 


a? 


Now Barbara had never had a party in her life. ~She 


_ had often wished to have the girls at her house but had 
been too shy to ask the busy aunts. 


When they spoke to her about the party her heart 


gave a great leap. To write invitations to all the girls 
: on her pretty pink paper, to have the lovely cakes and 


ice-cream and flowers that the aunts always considered 
necessary for a party. To play the games Aunt Minnie 


was planning. Her face beamed. Then she suddenly 
thought of the box. Parties cost money and if she gave 


up this dearest wish of her heart, the first and only 


party she had ever in her life, then she would have 
- gomething for the box. It was hard, oh, so hard, to 
explain to the aunts that please could she have the ~ 


re ; money the party would cost. 


ve 


a The very idea!’’ they said, all of em quite annoyed. 
But Barbara was brave as a lion, now, she just must be 


able to put something in the box. 


Aunt Charlotte counted up for her—the little cakes 


and the ice-cream in the shapes of roses and water-lilies. 


How the girls would have enjoyed it, Barbara thought 


with a pang. But the money went in the box and when 


she told Aunt Minnie the whole story she understand- 


i 


ay 


ingly helped her to arrange for all the cid to come up — 
the next afternoon to open the box. Barbara didn’t ery 
that night and she was just the happiest girl in the world 
when the girls came laughing into the room. eet 

Aunt Minnie had sent John down with the big « ear to 
bring them up. Barbara told her story and unlocked the. 
box. And then just when the girls might have felt 
that they had been cheated out of something very nice 
because Barbara had given up the party Aunt Minnie 


threw open the door and invited them all into the dining- _ 


room. And there was a big frosted birthday cake with 
twelve candles and there were the little boxes of candy 
for each girl and there was the ice-cream in the shapes 
of roses and water-lilies. , : 
“This is my party,’’ said jolly Aunt Minnie; 5 lena 
not giving all my money to little girls in India if Barbara 
is. I wouldn’t give that box house-room.’’ But she — 
smiled very lovingly on all the girls and they knew that 
in her heart she approved what Barbara had done. 
And the box passed this time to Pauline. 
Pauline was gloomy as she talked to Louise about it. 
They were boon companions. soli cae 
‘“They’ve all given such a lot of money,’’ she sighed. 
‘Why I’ve no idea where I could raise even fifty cents 
at the present moment. Our family don’t buy tennis © 
racquets, or give parties, or go on week-end trips 


with rich uncles.’’ Indeed the eight rollicking boys « 


and girls of which Pauline was the middle one in a 
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hard-working carpenter ’s family had little extra money 


if they did have a jolly time among themselves. 
“T’ve been thinking,’’ said Louise whose mother was 


a widow and clerk in a book-store, ‘‘that if you and I, 


Polly, are to put any money in that box we’ll have to 


earn it by the sweat of our brow. Let’s be partners in 
the box and I’ll talk to mother to-night. She generally 
has a suggestion ready.’’ Louise’s mother lived up to 
her reputation this time. Bright and early the next 


day Louise sought Pauline and told of a plan to fill the 


box. 


- “But mother says we’ll have to promise to work hard 


and make good or she won’t recommend us.. She says 


business people always have to do that.”’ = 
Evidently the working hard part of the proposition 


was rigidly lived up to. Neither of the girls seemed 


to have any time for play and Janet and Adelaide 
demanded an explanation several times of what they 


were doing with themselves. Only Barbara who was 


always on their side and whom they sometimes ad- 
mitted to their close comradeship sighed wistfully as 


they hurried away from school one night. 


>? 


_ “T know,’’ she whispered to Louise. ‘‘You’re doing 


something for the box.’’ Louise laid her finger on her 


lips. “It’s a big surprise Babs, but you’ll know soon 
now. Will you ask your Aunt Minnie to be sure to 
drop” in at Miller’ 's store on papand ays And you come 


13 


A number of other people received a pressing invita- 
tion to Miller’s store, indeed Mr. Miller invited the pub- 
he through the newspaper, to come and see a unique 
exhibit. And everybody came, among them Adelaide — 
and Janet and Doris and Aunt Minnie and Barbara. 
And there in a beautiful booth wonderfully trimmed 
with ecrépe paper were Pauline and Louise. They | 
worse dresses made of crépe paper and dainty butterfly 
caps and they were selling beads made out of sealing © 
wax. Collar and cuff sets made out of paper. Boxes, 
baskets, flowers, and numerous cunning little favors. 3 
Everybody was buying from them and Mr. Miller was 
rubbing his hands in satisfaction at the crowds. He 
marched his friends up to the booth and explained how ~ 
the young ladies had made everything themselves after — 
they had been given instruction by a representative of 
the firm that made the paper. The booth was photo- " 
eraphed to be used in a display competition. ; 

‘‘And I haven’t a doubt but that it’ll win a prize,’ 
said the optimistic Mr. Miller. : 

‘My, but we worked hard,’’ groaned Pauline Gs 
the girls assembled at Louise’s home to once more unlock ~ 
the box. ‘‘If Louise hadn’t kept me at it I never could 
have stuck out the month.’? 

“Nonsense, Polly, you know you liked it and. Via if 


Merchant, the lady who taught us, said that you had — 
real knack. Why those fingers of HUES could makes ~ 


that paper do anything.’’ 
14 


‘However did you think of it?’’ asket Janet. 

‘‘Well, Polly and I knew that no money would fall 
into our laps. And it happened when I asked mother if 
there was not something we could do, that she had just 
been wondering if she would have the time to get some 
instruction and feature the paper for the store. So she 
passed it over to us and it was a great responsibility 
because if we didn’t make good mother would be 
blamed and Mr. Miller would lose money. So we just 
had to give up everything but our school work and 
make paper things. But there's our contribution to the 
box,’’ pointing to the heap of nickels and dimes on the 
table. Mr. Miller gave us all we took in. We sold 
everything and could have sold more.’’ 

And so the box passed to Doris as the last member 
of the group. 

‘““You know I’m getting to lke that box pretty 
‘well,’’ said Janet as Doris carried it off. ‘‘What will 
you do with it Adelaide, send it on its rounds again ?”’ 

Adelaide shook her head. 

‘‘T don’t know,’’ she said thoughtfully. ‘‘It just 
isn’t an ordinary box, it seems to make people do the 
most wonderful things. I think Louise and Polly were 
just bricks to carry out their scheme. Won’t Dr. 
Drew enjoy hearing about it?’’ 

But the question of what to do with the box was settled 
for the Club in quite an unexpected manner. When 
Doris invited them to her house to be present at the 


lad 


15 


opening of the box for the last time they were rather 
surprised to find not only Doris but her father and _ 
mother and another lady in the living room and the 
box as usual in the middle of the table. — 

‘‘We’ve invited ourselves,’’ said Mr. Keene smiling at _ 
the abashed girls, ‘‘much to the distress of Doris, who 
thinks you won’t like it. But we are all so interested and 
Mrs. Moreland, here, is interested in the box because 
you know she is the president of our missionary society 
and up to this time she thought only her society was — 
interested in the people of India. She covets the power 
of that box, I think.”’ 

- Doris unlocked it and held up her contribution. 

‘* Just as soon as that box set out on its rounds I knew 
what I would have to put into it and that was the price | 
of a term at an art class that father said he could con- 
trive for me to have this year. 

You girls all know how I can’t keep my hands off a 2 
pencil and I was just wild to go where I could be draw- : 
ing all the time and know that I was learning to do — 
things the right way. Well, I brought the box home | 
and while I knew I would give up the elass for it I sat 
round and hated it for quite a while. And I was look- 
ing at it one day I thought of the doctor Adelaide told 
us about. Of how she was spending her whole life for — 


those little girls and as I looked at it I remembered _ 


Babs saying that the carving had looked to her like 
little girls’ faces. Then I went and hunted up some _ 


iG 


ie) ve 
eh | See 
me 


thie 5 in India and I eee this poster. 


ad sedeinidest he That? s eee the way 
0 me when Dr. Drew gate me about nae 


oe sone a apaue auen eae the . 
es around her were little ue with 


y suit me on a Ae ie ie didn t fete fhe aS 
cat T went, to Be and oe him the piliole 


Sunieets 


s 


eh was so a pleased and house at the 


$0 that’ offers: may fall ‘under its 
to ) ask you to let me take it to the 


next meeting of the missionary society and tell its history 
and what you blessed girls have done with it. Will you?”’ 


Of course the girls were glad to let Mrs. Moreland have — 


the box though Janet said in her usual impulsive man- 
ner that it must just be Manele The Box Club just 
couldn’t give it up. | 

So the box and the poster went to the meeting and 
Mrs. Moreland told the story of its ‘‘discomfort’’ history 


so successfully that she won it a permanent place on 


the mantle-piece of the room where the missionary meet- 
ings are held. It is opened once a month and has never 
yet been found empty. The girls would see to that 


anyway, for they have never forgotten that it is their 


‘“discomfort’’ box and that it first taught them the joy 
of giving to missions. 


December 1921 


as 


